PGA Nominations: Is Sci-Fi Finally Getting Some Respect?

Earlier today, the Producers Guild of America announced its 10 nominees for Best Picture, and to the surprise of many, three of the nods went to science-fiction films: “Avatar,” “District 9,” and “Star Trek.” (Some of the films left out: “Julie & Julia,” “The Messenger,” “Nine,” and “A Serious Man.”) The PGA has traditionally shied away from spotlighting the genre, but when you break it down, it makes sense. Some observations:

The PGA Awards are decided by producers, who are the business-men-and-women of each film. And they can appreciate when a well put-together crowd-pleaser makes serious bank: “Avatar” crossed the $1 billion mark in only 17 days and is on its way to being the second-highest grossing, and possibly the top-grossing film of all time; “Star Trek” has grossed $258 million domestically; and $30 million-budgeted “District 9″ made $116 million domestically, despite having zero stars and a barely-known South African-born director.

Science fiction = visual effects, so at least in theory, the producing workflow becomes much more complex — and, in the case of “Avatar,” ground-breaking. Plus, behind every one of these films, there’s an established name at the helm. “District 9″ may have been directed by Neill Blomkamp, but it was co-produced by Peter Jackson, who’s already won a PGA Best Picture award (for “The Return of the King”) and knows a thing or two about putting together films that push the boundaries of the imagination.

Then again, maybe Hollywood is just finally starting to look past the ghetto categorization of “science fiction,” and recognize that a good film is a good film, no matter the genre. (As a rough measure, both “Star Trek” and “District 9″ were positively reviewed by most critics and named to quite a few “Best of 2009″ lists.) And given that the PGA’s Best Picture has aligned with the Academy Awards’ Best Picture 13 of the last 20 years — including last year’s winner, “Slumdog Millionaire” — come Oscar night, some sci-fi aficionados could be very pleased with the end results.

The PGA Awards, now in its 21st year, will be held Sunday, January 24 at the Hollywood Palladium.

Here’s a full list of the nominees.

DARRYL F. ZANUCK PRODUCER OF THE YEAR AWARD IN THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES: